Perfectionism, Anxiety and Procrastination As Predictors of EFL Academic Achievement: a Mixed Methods Study
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2018, 12(2), 96-115 Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language) Perfectionism, Anxiety and Procrastination as Predictors of EFL Academic Achievement: A Mixed Methods Study 1 2 Nihal YURTSEVEN & Uğur AKPUR 1 PhD, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Bahçeşehir University, Turkey [email protected] 2 PhD, School of Foreign Languages, Yildiz Technical University, Turkey [email protected] Article information Submission 31/03/2018 Revision received 21/09/2018 Acceptance 08/10/2018 Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to determine the predictive level of Keywords perfectionism, anxiety, and procrastination on academic achievement and to describe Perfectionism, interrelationships among the variables. A convergent parallel mixed methods anxiety, research design was applied in the study. The participants included 522 college procrastination, students. The “Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale,” “Foreign Language academic Classroom Anxiety Scale,” and “Aitken Academic Procrastination Inventory” were achievement. used as data collection tools for the quantitative portion of the study, and the quantitative data were analyzed through correlational and multiple linear regression analysis. The qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis by organizing a focus group interview with seven students. The findings of the regression analysis revealed the three predictors, perfectionism, anxiety and procrastination, explained 54 % of the variance (R2 = .54, p<0.01) and perfectionism, anxiety and procrastination together illustrated a high level and significant relationship with academic achievement (R2 = .54, p<0.01). Correspondingly, the qualitative data also gave parallel results with the quantitative data by indicating that anxiety was the most powerful variable which affects academic achievement. Anahtar sözcükler İngilizce Dersi Akademik Başarısının Yordayıcıları Olarak Mükemmeliyetçilik, Mükemmeliyetçilik, Kaygı ve Erteleme: Bir Karma Araştırma kaygı, Öz: Bu çalışmanın amacı, mükemmeliyetçilik, kaygı ve erteleme düzeylerinin erteleme, akademik başarı üzerindeki yordama gücünü ve söz konusu değişkenler arasındaki akademik başarı. karşılıklı ilişki örüntüsünü belirlemektir. Çalışma yakınsak paralel karma yöntem araştırma deseni ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu toplam 522 üniversite öğrencisi oluşturmuştur. Nicel veriler için veri toplama aracı olarak Çok Boyutlu Mükemmeliyetçilik Ölçeği, Yabancı Dil Sınıf Kaygısı Ölçeği ve Erteleme Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Nicel veriler korelasyon ve çoklu doğrusal regresyon çözümlemesi ile; nitel veriler ise yedi öğrenci ile odak grup görüşmesi düzenlenerek içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Regresyon analizi sonuçları, üç yordayıcı değişken olan, mükemmeliyetçilik, kaygı ve ertelemenin toplam varyansın %54'ünü açıkladığını göstermiştir (R2= .54, p<0.01). Elde edilen bulgular, mükemmeliyetçilik, kaygı ve ertelemenin, akademik başarı ile yüksek düzeyde ve anlamlı bir ilişkiye sahip olduğunu ortaya koymuştur (R2= .54, p<0.01). Gerçekleştirilen nitel analizler de nicel bulgulara benzer sonuçlar ortaya koymuş ve kaygının akademik başarıyı etkileyen en önemli değişken olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. 97 Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language) Yurtseven & Akpur 1. Introduction Defined as “the wish for everything to be correct or perfect” (Perfectionism, 2017), the concept of perfectionism has recently been attracting much interest among educators (Chang, 2006; Dunkley, Blankstein, Zuroff, Lecce, & Hui, 2006; Gnilka, Ashby, & Nobel, 2012; Walsh & Ugumba-Agwunobi, 2002; Wang, Yuen, & Slaney, 2009) as well as educational psychologists (Neumeister, Fletcher, & Burney, 2015). Despite its reputation among scholars, defining perfectionism is elusive (Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001). Frost, Marten, Lahart and Rosenblate (1990) define the term as “setting of excessively high personal standards of performance” (p. 450). Similarly, Flett and Hewitt (2006) argue that perfectionist people adhere closely to their own standards, even when perfectionism is not in question, and they insist on, with an unreasonable desire, obtaining personal standards that are normally high and hard to reach. To Frost et al. (1990), these extreme standards, set by perfectionist individuals, are “accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations of one’s own behavior” (p. 450), which results in extreme concern for or fear of making mistakes, tendency to have suspicions about the value of the performance as well as the feeling of inadequacy to meet others’ expectations. In other words, perfectionists can be described as the ones who set unattainable objectives, strictly abide by them and give meaning to their existence or value with regard to accomplishing the objectives (Shafran & Mansell, 2001). While initially theorized as a unitary structure (Baran-Lucarz, 2013; Miquelon, Vallerand, Grouzet, & Cardinal, 2005), researchers have treated perfectionism as a multidimensional notion for over the last two decades (Di Schiena, Luminet, Philippot, & Douilliez, 2012; Drolet, Volais, Forget, & Caron, 2014; Flett & Hewitt, 2006; Frost et al., 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991; Stoeber, Otto, & Dalbert, 2009). Hewitt and Flett (1991) developed a “Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale” (MPS), including three elements of perfectionism: “self-oriented perfectionism,” “socially prescribed perfectionism” and “other-oriented perfectionism.” Establishing improbable objectives or expectations forms the very basis of the “Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale” (Neumeister, Fletcher, & Burney, 2015). However, the “Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale” (MPS), developed by Frost et al. (1990), emphasizes six different aspects of perfectionism, and, among others, they put the dimension “excessive concern for mistakes” (p. 449) in the center of the measure. Apart from “excessive concern for mistakes,” the scale includes “high personal standards, the perception of high parental expectations, the perception of high parental criticism, doubting of the quality of one’s actions, and the preference for order and organization.” Moreover, Slaney et al. (2001), asserting that most scales on perfectionism generally “measure the negative psychological concerns” (p. 131), developed The Almost Perfect Scale - Revised (APS-R). The APS-R highlights two aspects of perfectionism: “adaptive perfectionism” and “maladaptive perfectionism.” “Adaptive perfectionism” focuses on setting and having high objectives and standards to be obtained while “maladaptive perfectionism” focuses on the discrepancy between a person’s actual performance and targeted individual standards or objectives (Comerchero & Fortugno, 2013; Enns, Cox, & Clara, 2002; Slaney et al., 2001; Ulu & Tezer, 2010). Gregersen and Horwitz (2002) argue that perfectionism, as in the case of anxiety, can be one of the inhibitory factors behind poor school performance. As for foreign language learning, perfectionist individuals are the ones who are not contented with just speaking in a foreign language; on the contrary, they strive for having a native-like speaking performance which is totally free from mistakes, even pauses. Thus, perfectionist learners would prefer not to participate in any kind of activity or speaking task unless they are sure of themselves in expressing their opinions. In the event that they are not confident of expressing their thoughts 98 Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language) Yurtseven & Akpur perfectly well, they prefer withdrawing themselves or being reluctant to engage in speaking activities. For Gregersen and Horwitz (2002), such demanding standards or objectives make the emergence of language anxiety possible. Prevalent views in the related literature put forward the idea that perfectionism is mostly thought to have an affiliation with anxiety (Erozkan, 2016; Flett & Hewitt, 2006; Flett, Hewitt, & De Rosa, 1996; Kawamura, Hunt, Frost, & DiBartolo, 2001), and anxiety is an element that hampers foreign language learning (Martin & Alverez Valdivia, 2017). Dewaele (2013), correlating foreign language anxiety with perfectionism as a personality dimension, asserts that an individual having anxiety with a high level tends to be more of a perfectionist. As Hewitt and Stephenson (2012) argue, studying the concept of anxiety does not only help understand the role and significance of it as an inhibitory determinant in foreign language learning, but it leads to a remedy as well, since the concept itself has a “facilitating” aspect (Scovel, 1978, p. 129). Focusing particularly on anxiety in foreign language learning and developing the “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” (FLCAS), Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) regard foreign language anxiety as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom foreign language learning arising from the uniqueness of the foreign language learning process” (p. 128). According to the theory, foreign language anxiety consists of three constituents: “communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety” (Horwitz et al., 1986). “Communication apprehension is a type of shyness” that appears when interacting with other people (Andrade & Williams, 2009). For Horwitz et al. (1986), people encountering difficulty in speaking in front of people generally experience this kind of anxiety. “Fear of negative evaluation” is to do with the concern about other people’s assessment. The final type, “test anxiety,” which is generally associated with setting